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The Horses and the Hounds

by James McMurtry

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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    - 140g black vinyl
    - 12", 2-LP, gatefold

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Horses and the Hounds via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    - Digiwallet

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1.
I was thinking ‘bout you, crossing Southern Alberta canola fields on a July day are about the same chartreuse as that sixty-nine bug you used to drive around San Jose you never knew where my old white Lincoln might take you party on wheels with suicide doors bring the kids and the dogs and your grandma too we always had room for more til that white knuckle ride back from Santa Cruz second best surfer on the central coast had you wrapped up all the way back to Los Gatos and I could’ve cut his throat and it wasn't like we were an item to start with it had no basis in fact but the whiskey could push me to sudden extremes I don’t want to think about that, I don’t want to think about that (chorus) take my hand Marie take a death grip on some part of me keep me from drifting far out to sea or I’ll be lost out there we all drifted away with the days getting shorter seeking our place in the greater scheme kids and careers and a vague sense of order busting apart at the seams I heard you switched coasts, moved in with your sister I doubt you’d have called it familial bliss we met up in Brooklyn before it went hipster you carried your keys in your fist in a way back corner of a cross town bus we were hiding out under my hat cashing in on a thirty year crush you can’t be young and do that you can’t be young and do that (chorus) I was thinking ‘bout you crossing Southern Alberta canola fields at harvest time look like tumbleweeds all raked up into rows brown rusty contour lines and there’s not much moving on the romance radar not that I’m craving it all that much but I still need to feel every once in a while the warmth of a smile and a touch and in a way back corner of a cross town bus we were hiding out under my hat cashing in on a thirty year crush you can’t be young and do that you can’t be young and do that (chorus)
2.
looking back down the road from a little ways out I never had a fear and I never had a doubt if I’d had a lick of sense I’d have figured that out pretty fast but I wasn’t any smarter than the average kid somebody might’ve noticed, but I never did I never saw the future fading right into the past talking to the wallpaper, wandering the halls I burned a lot of bridges and I dropped a lot of balls it’s a wonder I can ever go back to anyplace I’ve been but I wouldn’t get down on my knees on a bet I’m near enough to Jesus as I ever want to get seeking salvation isn’t part of my general plan (chorus) save your prayers for yourself I raise my glass to your health I don’t mind if you don’t look like me I can share my bread and wine I come from another time it don’t matter all that much if it don’t bleed if it don’t bleed now it’s all I can do just to get out of bed there’s more in the mirror than there is up ahead I smile and I nod like I heard what you said every time so run another rack, pour another shot you don’t get it back so give it all you got while you still got a more or less functional body and mind (chorus) I learned to answer my calls and open my mail I paid my taxes and I stayed out of jail you stay in the game when you’re too broke to fail that’s a fact talking to the wallpaper, sleeping in the hall bones get brittle so you better not fall you slow to a crawl and time gets to balling the jack run you right off the track (chorus)
3.
it don’t have to trouble me and you the country boys will do the fighting now that fighting’s all a country boy can do we got a handle on it this time no one’s gonna tell us we were wrong we won’t let the cameras near the fighting that way we won’t have another Vietnam (chorus) no one knows, ‘cause no one sees no one cares, ‘cause no one knows no one knows, ‘cause no one sees it on TV she works a checkpoint in the city choking on the gravel dust and smog she knows not to stop the black Suburban those guys will run you down just like a dog the KBR man knows her trailer he hips her to some recon that he’s found says he’ll be coming by for a late inspection and there’d best not be no soldier boy around (chorus) (bridge) don’t they look just like on “SEAL Team” Lord don’t they look the best when we trot them out at halftime or the seventh inning stretch they stand up in their uniforms and help us sell the show dying by their own hands for reasons we don’t know we got an operation going on it don’t have to trouble you and me a KBR man cooks a T-bone a soldier’s choking down an MRE we just go on about our business drop the kids off at the mall play the Black Ops on the laptop and don’t make too big a fuss about it all (chorus)
4.
Jackie 05:07
half a section in the short grass at the foot of the plains grows broomweed in the dry times, ragweed when it rains it’s all she’s got left that the lawyers don’t claim Jackie does her damn best, never one to complain she’s been green breaking horses when she’s home from the road waiting on dispatch to find her a load she leased all but the trap, ponies can’t graze a thing another bobtail of coastal ought to last them ’til spring there were pitchers on the tables and kids running ‘round four generations of a blinking light town it was the Cotton Eyed Joe or maybe just the right glance she got to going with Randy at the Friday night dance (chorus) I just got two rules, if my conscience be known don’t lie to me, don’t bring me nothing home faithful’s a nice word in Sunday school class life’s just too crazy for that Randy says not to worry, he’ll feed while she’s gone she’s got the Freightliner idling half up on his lawn he don’t like her driving when the northers come blue but if the horses went hungry Lord knows what she’d do ‘round Christmas up the Caprock you can see all the towns and the courthouses lit up for ten miles around it’s a magical time to be traveling the roads watch the country roll by in the halogens’ glow (chorus) she jack knifed on black ice with an oversized load there’s a white cross in the borrow ditch where she went off the road she wasn’t going that fast, the responders all say how it ended that bad, we can wonder all day
5.
Decent Man 04:48
he was more than just a decent man, best friend I ever had when you’re shooting at a coffee can, a thirty eight don’t kick that bad but it kicks right through my bones every second of every day clacking by like cobblestones under broken wheels if the truth be known, I wasn’t doing that well I wasn’t paying attention, I brought it on myself and I blamed it on the gods that seemed to smile on everybody else I got so inside out, I didn’t know what was real (chorus) my fields are empty now my ground won’t take the plow it’s washed down to gravel and stones it’s only good for burying bones I took the pistol off the wall, somebody hollered, ”Put it back, sit down Dad before you fall down, you got no earthly use for that.” but I slipped out the kitchen door, saddled up the sway backed mule cinched her tight and swung on board, rode off like a drunken fool I rode right on off the world, just like it never mattered none there wasn’t nothing but me and the hurt, and the biting cold, and the heft of that gun in the pocket of a sheepskin coat, moonlight in a madman’s eye for the unfairness of it all, surely something had to die (chorus) he came out in the lantern light his face in the flash was the last I saw of the world when it was still right I didn’t watch him fall, I knew I’d hit him good, twice in the chest without a thought turned the mule towards the county seat, like I knew I ought (chorus) Lola comes to visit, there’s just nothing I can say we sit here of an afternoon ’til it’s time for her to go away she rides home on that same mule that brought me to this place I don’t know how she even stands to look upon her Daddy’s face he was more than just a decent man best friend I ever had when you’re shooting at a coffee can a thirty eight don’t kick that bad
6.
Vaquero 04:41
in memory of Bill Witliff 1940-2019 I don’t take the paper, I don’t watch TV I was out on the road when the word got to me well goddamn the text, couldn’t I just have gone blind and heard your voice in my ear like I did in my mind (chorus) mira vaquero (look yonder vaquero) se pone el sol (the sun sets) buen caballero viajando con Dios (fine horseman, travelling with God) mira vaquero (look yonder vaquero) no miramos atras (we don’t look back) nos vamos al campo (let us go to the cow camp) una vez mas, una vez mas (one more time, one more time) your chaps are still dusty from late summer’s drouth when the cedar turn rusty it’s time to go south when your time is upon you, you don’t always know “Brinca la vida,” Abuela nos dijo (“Life jumps,” Grandmother told us) “Brinca la vida,” we learned long ago (chorus) so pour out the coffee and piss on the fire I hear hounds in the distance, it’s down to the wire make for the cow camp, we might have a chance vamonos por el campo en el campo we’ll dance vamonos por el campo en el campo we’ll dance (chorus)
7.
when the white oak leaves are rustling ‘round the courtyard tell the cook to leave the kitchen window down just don’t lock it from inside, I might still need a place to hide when I turn to face the horses and the hounds sister says to come on back for Christmas mama’s wondering why I never come around lord I’ve been running for so long I just can’t find a way back home so I’ll turn to face the horses and the hounds (chorus) you might hear some gears a’grinding ‘fore I can get this rig turned back around and head back down the highway winding back towards the horses and the hounds I thought I’d found a love to last me ’til she opted for that candy coated clown I didn’t even make a show I just walked on and let’em go still I’m running from the horses and the hounds (chorus) on the Trail’s Inn Motel sign rides a warrior with his horse run out and his lance a’pointed down that’s as far as he’s gonna get, he surely knows what’s coming next he’s just waiting on the horses and the hounds (chorus) and I bet they hear it halfway back to town when I turn to face the horses the horses and the hounds
8.
well she woke up mad and she’s trying to pick a fight got a phone to my ear ‘cause I’m trying to book a flight and she’s crazy as a goddamned loon and the airline’s drowning in the belly of the beast and they’re all bogged down from the weather in the east and we’re not going anywhere soon it’s thirty degrees on the Emerald Coast I spilled my coffee and I burned my toast and the rent car’s sitting on a flat the internet’s down and they don’t know why and I damn near made the desk clerk cry and there wasn’t any reason for that she’s camped in the shower and she won’t come out and I don’t have a clue what that’s about I’ll just have to wait and see can’t get online to check the bank Twitter’s on fire, my stocks all tanked but what’s really getting to me is (chorus) I keep losing my glasses I keep losing my glasses I keep losing my glasses I keep losing my glasses Georgia license Code B Restriction can’t drive ‘less I got my specs on double negative’s proper diction in this North Florida redneck lexicon ain’t nothing but Fox News fiction on nobody’s showing the game I’m betting on how’re they gonna build a wall with no Mexicans anyway honeymoon’s over less than enchanted gonna be driving back to Atlanta she don’t like the freeway so we’re going scenic Apalachicola and points in between patches of fog on up to Sopchoppy ten four driver we good and gone, copy we’ll get home tonight or there’s gonna be hell to pay roadside stand selling tupelo honey you take you a jar and leave’em the money that’s how they do it down here but it’s cold and they’re not selling today she’d just break a jar on my head anyway ‘cause it’s my fault we got such a damn late start I was doing my part for my art and I kept losing my glasses (chorus) made the exit and turned up Ponce and I’ll be damned if I know what she wants but we gotta get something to eat Majestic Diner’s our best chance pork chop and eggs oughta save the romance it’s maybe a mile up the street my daddy told me, if you got any sense better feed the woman, many years hence I know what he meant and I got me a plan but I can’t read the menu ‘cause damn I keep losing my glasses . . .
9.
the phone’s on the dash, the goddamned thing it’s one of those times when I know it’s gonna ring don’t want to answer, but I got no choice there’s something bad wrong I can hear it in your voice (chorus) what’s the matter what’s the matter now the dryer’s broke down and the kids all cryin’ it’s pouring down rain and there’s clothes on the line I don’t know what to tell you, don’t know what to say how’m I gonna fix it, I’m a thousand miles away (chorus) I get to travel and you gotta stay home you’re gettin’ tired of raising them kids alone I know it ain’t easy, I know it ain’t fair you keep saying I never take you anywhere want me to take you for an airplane ride want me to take you to the seaside sorry baby but I can’t right now gonna have to make it up to you somehow (chorus) (bridge) we’re nearly twenty years older and it’s not like we thought it’d be we never talked this over you can’t lay it all on me van’s barely running and we’re all half sick band leader’s being such a damn little prick we hit the road early and I never got a shower supposed to been at soundcheck back about an hour blood pressure’s up and I gotta take pills if the food don’t kill me, the alcohol will I know it ain’t healthy, but this is what I do same thing I was doing back before I met you (chorus) you want to know about a number I called must’ve been a misdial I don’t recall doctor bills came and we’re down on our knees insurance pays when they damn well please I sent home the money, soon as I could sent it home to Sancho, like a good man should what’s the matter . . .
10.
I don’t know what went wrong I ain’t known you that long to begin with leave the rocks in the road, stay away from the river Virginia there’s not much you can do ‘cept wait on a train when the road gullies out in a Biblical rain and that’s how it’s been ever since I can remember I’m not too keen of mind I don’t pick up on signs like I ought to so I won’t sweat the cost of the coffee or the wine that I bought you with your emptied out nest, your chicks have all flew now there’s nobody left to take care of but you and you don’t know how to just be no one ever taught you I can’t find much to say as you play with that loose strand of hair if you had you a tail you’d be twitching it and I’ve got to get over the scare and tell you no (chorus) and tell you no and tell you no and tell you no never saw such a cold day in June did you ever Virginia? in our young days the old people called it blackberry winter as the mail plane goes out at a slow rate of climb this cold rain don’t help with your low state of mind hanging down like the fog on the ridge you can’t tell what’s in it and you stare me down hard and you ask me why I even care it’s not that I’m any Sir Galahad there just needs to be somebody there to tell you no (chorus) your bags are all packed, you’re not coming back that’s for certain and the landlady won’t like the stains on the rugs and the curtains that’s just wear and tear such as happens in life but folks around here live to gossip and gripe so I won’t tell a soul what they’ll never know will never hurt ‘em and I found the letter you left at the foot of the stairs I hear the horn blow, the train’s pulling out I hope you find somebody there to tell you no to tell you no . . . leave the rocks in the road stay away from the river Virginia

about

In James McMurtry’s new effort, The Horses and the Hounds, the acclaimed songwriter backs personal narratives with effortless elegance (“Canola Fields”) and endless energy (“If It Don’t Bleed”). This first collection in seven years spotlights a seasoned tunesmith in peak form as he turns toward reflection (“Vaquero”) and revelation (closer “Blackberry Winter”). Familiar foundations guide the journey. “There’s a definite Los Angeles vibe to this record,” McMurtry says. “The ghost of Warren Zevon seems to be stomping around among the guitar tracks. Don’t know how he got in there. He never signed on for work for hire.”

The Horses and the Hounds is a reunion of sorts. McMurtry recorded the new album with legendary producer Ross Hogarth (Ozzy Osbourne, John Fogerty, Van Halen, Keb’ Mo’) at Jackson Browne’s Groovemaster’s in Santa Monica, California. Hogarth recorded McMurtry’s first two albums, Too Long in the Wasteland and Candyland and later mixed McMurtry’s first self-produced album, Saint Mary of the Woods. Another veteran of those three releases, guitarist David Grissom (Joe Ely, John Mellencamp, Dixie Chicks), returns with some of his finest work.

credits

released August 20, 2021

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Produced by Ross Hogarth
Mixed by Ross Hogarth at The Boogie Motel (Woodland Hills, CA)
Recorded by Ross Hogarth at Jackson Browne’s Groovemasters (Santa Monica, CA) Infinitespin Records (Van Nuys, CA), and Arlyn Studios (Austin, TX)
Additional recording by Pat Manske at The Zone Studios (Dripping Springs, TX) and by Joseph Holguin at Arlyn Studios (Austin, TX)
Assistant engineers: Kevin Smith (Groovemasters), Joseph Holguin (Arlyn Studios), Peter Brownlee (Infinitespin)
Mastered by Richard Dodd (Nashville, TN)

Management: Jenni Finlay, Jenni Finlay Promotions (Austin, TX)
Business Management: Victor Wlodinguer, Citrin Cooperman (New York, NY)
Booking: Dave Rowan, High Road Touring (Sausalito, CA)
Art Direction and Design: Marc Harkness


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Thank You: Tony Magee, Jackson Browne, Lisa Fletcher, Matt Linesch, Gersh, Brendan McCusker for diligence beyond the call of duty, Mady Kaye, David Pulkingham, Curtis McMurtry, Kris Hogarth, Frank Riley, Wendell Berry, Alejandro Escovedo, Capp’s Van and Car Rental (Austin, TX), South Austin Music



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